Settlement Agreement – Second Opinion

I was delighted to help a client who was struggling with a Settlement Agreement. The agreement would terminate her employment and pay her compensation in return. It had been negotiated between her Union and her employer, but all was not as she expected. Read on for more information.

What happened?

My client came to see me with a draft Settlement Agreement she had been offered by her employer. She had an extremely difficult time with her employers. After several years of loyal service, her entirely legitimate concerns about working practises were being ignored and, despite her best efforts, she found herself in a position of conflict with her employer.

My client had been assisted by her Union. Her Union Representative had opened up negotiations to secure the termination of her employment in exchange for a compensation payment. After several months and unanswered questions, my client was presented with a Settlement Agreement and told that as her Union had agreed the terms and she simply had to sign.

My client was referred to the Union solicitors who sent her a standard document. They were clear that they would not discuss the background of the situation with her and she was simply required to tell them whether or not she agreed the terms. My client was concerned about a number of the terms and actually wanted someone to go through the detail of the Settlement Agreement with her. She, therefore, decided to take independent advice from Lincs Law.

How did I help?

When I met with my client, she was in some distress. She had been given a deadline to sign the Settlement Agreement and had also been told her Union had agreed the terms on her behalf. At our meeting, we took some time going through the background together. I also set out her options and reassured her that there was absolutely no need to sign the Settlement Agreement if she wanted to remain in her employment. I further explained that her employers had no reason to dismiss her and, therefore, whether she stayed or left was entirely her choice. Also, if she wanted to leave her employment, she should ensure that the termination was on terms she was happy with.

We went through the Settlement Agreement together and found a number of mistakes, misrepresentations and inaccuracies. In short, the agreement was not as my client understood the agreed terms to be. She explained that she did want to leave her employment, but only as part of a fair deal. She instructed me to renegotiate on her behalf to ensure we had a Settlement Agreement which properly reflected the situation and compensated her appropriately.

Initially, I experienced some resistance from the employers who, with some justification, said that they had already agreed terms with the Union and therefore were not willing to revisit the same following my involvement. However, after several exchanges of emails, I was able to provide a significantly improved Settlement Agreement to my client which I could advise her to sign. She was quite happy to do so. She particularly stated that she had been pleased that I had kept her involved in negotiations all the way and had explained my reasoning for changes and variations that needed to be made.

My client kindly left a review for my services which stated:

“Sally was recommended to me by a close friend & I can’t thank her enough for the work she did for me. At the point I went to see her after going through months and months of extreme stress, she unpicked the mess which had been created by my union, re wrote the legal documentation because it was totally wrong & negotiated a good & fair deal for me. Her efficiency, diligence, enthusiasm and effectiveness are second to none.”

Can I help you?

If you have a Settlement Agreement and want advice about whether the deal and terms are the very best for you, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01522 440512. For more information about Lincs Law Employment Solicitors including what we do and how we do it, please visit our website at www.lincslaw.co.uk

Sally Hubbard

Sally is a Lincolnshire girl through and through and has lived in Lincoln her whole life (apart from a brief spell when she went to university in Nottingham, but we don’t talk about that). She began her career with Lincolnshire County Council qualifying as a solicitor in 1996, which she believes now makes her "vintage".

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